Atlanta Hawks guard Lou Williams is likely glad to be with his current team now, but he was quite frustrated after first being traded by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Williams had made it known following the trade he was considering retirement. Those thoughts appear to have been spurred on by his initial belief the Hawks were not truly contenders:
“I’ll be frank—I wasn’t sure,” Williams said about coming to the Hawks, via Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “This wasn’t a team that I was really paying attention to.”
Williams elaborated, saying it was hard for him to go from a championship contender in the Clippers to a team that had been an also-ran in the Eastern Conference for years:
“In the Western Conference, me playing with the Clippers, we were on a hunt for a championship run, so my focus was solely on that,” Williams said.
Of course, Williams might still be competing for a championship if he played for the Clippers. Los Angeles is trying to fight back from what was a 3-1 deficit against the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference.
The Hawks, meanwhile, are on more stable ground. Williams started in place of an injured Trae Young and scored 21 points to go along with eight assists and five rebounds, leading Atlanta to a crucial victory at knotting the series with the Milwaukee Bucks at two wins apiece.
Williams' allegiances have shifted. He has fully bought in to his hometown team, with the possibility his Hawks could even face the Clippers in the NBA Finals.
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